Build A Startup From Your Hostel Room! BITS New Initiative For Budding Entrepreneurs

The secret of getting ahead is getting started. But when it comes to sowing the seeds of your business idea, what is the right time to start?  Should you wait to get a degree first or drop out of college and take the plunge? Both sound risky, right? So, how about graduating with a degree and your own startup in hand?

Thanks, to the deferred placement scheme, budding entrepreneurs can now complete their studies and also try out their business idea during their course curriculum. Many top institutes in the country have started this scheme and the outcome has been encouraging.

Along similar lines as deferred placement, BITS Pilani has come up with a support mechanism to help budding entrepreneurs shape their business ideas. In a bid to nurture and further the startup culture in the country, the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani is all set to allow students and faculty members to take up to one year off to start their own ventures. Let’s understand how this move would help launch future unicorns in India. 

Empowering tinkering ideas

Reinstating the Institute’s entrepreneurial vision, BITS has launched the ‘Innovation and Startup Policy of 2022’ that would "guide in setting resource plans to achieve entrepreneurship goals of the institute and give momentum to startups and other ventures founded and co-founded by BITSians in India and across the globe."

Apart from the one year off for students and faculty, there are other supportive mechanisms too such as:

• Students can earn course credits for working on innovative prototypes and business models.
• Students can use their hostel room address to register their company with due permission. (This facility is available to students whose firms have been funded and incubated by BITS Pilani's official tech-business incubator).
• Subsidized accommodation for entrepreneurs with incubated startups. 
• The faculty members may also avail sabbatical or extraordinary leave or an earned leave for a maximum period of one year and may be allowed to work full-time for the start-up

While deferred placements may only help if one is setting up a startup in the final year, the above option might be useful for students in any year of graduation. The above provisions along with other liberal approaches offered by BITS such as the no-attendance policy, early-graduation program, etc. will certainly go a long way to provide a conducive platform for innovative minds to test out their ideas. 

Providing a safety net for young entrepreneurs

Liberal approaches such as deferred placements, permissible year-long gaps, extraordinary leave, etc. help to spawn an innovative startup ecosystem for future entrepreneurs. It encourages them to take the leap of faith and actualize their ideas into actions by giving them enough time and space and alleviating uncertainty about their future. 

As per the latest data, the total number of recognized startups in India has risen from 471 in 2016 to 72,993 as of 30th June 2022. The said approaches taken by the top institutes for budding entrepreneurs will certainly help to further this figure. 

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